Procedural Issues Research Articles

A SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT IN ECONOMIC PROCEEDINGS

The article examines a settlement agreement as one of conciliation procedures in economic proceedings. For reconciliation, the parties must take active joint actions to achieve a result. It was revealed that the procedure for the reconciliation of the parties and the content of the settlement agreement are not and cannot be established by the current procedural legislation, since it is actually a negotiation process that is impractical to regulate in detail. However, the draft settlement agreement as a result of joint efforts is submitted to the court for further approval, and approval is not a formal, automatic act of the court. Domestic procedural codes are analyzed and it is proven that the grounds for a judge’s refusal to approve a settlement agreement are clearly established by the procedural law, but are not identical in different laws. It is proposed to supplement Article 192 of the Economic Procedural Code of Ukraine with such reasons for refusing to approve a settlement agreement as "the terms of the agreement do not meet the interests of society" and “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the conclusion of the agreement was not voluntary, or the parties have not reconciled”. The author agrees with the position that the parties to the settlement agreement should reach a compromise on all important substantative legal issues that belong to the subject of the dispute and can be implemented by the participants in the case. On the other hand procedural issues cannot be a part of the settlement agreement. It is proposed to highlight the following positive features of the settlement agreement: 1) the settlement agreement allows the parties to resolve the conflict without a lengthy court process, saving time and resources of business and the judicial system; 2) the settlement agreement gives the parties the opportunity to go beyond the requirements and independently choose the terms of dispute resolution; 3) resolving the dispute through an settlement agreement contributes to maintaining good business relations between the parties; 4) settlement agreements reduce the burden on the judicial system; 5) the use of settlement agreements by Ukrainian business entities increases the competitiveness of the Ukrainian business environment in the world. The task of the court is to prevent abuses in the process of concluding a settlement agreement and the infringement of the interests of the parties as well as other persons.

A-085 Comparing CO2 stability in patient samples and proficiency testing material

Abstract Background Total carbon dioxide (tCO2) measurements are important in the assessment of acid-base disorders. The collection and storage conditions of specimens are important preanalytical factors that can influence the accuracy of tCO2 measurements. Proficiency testing (PT) materials are used to assess the accuracy and reliability of a laboratory’s test performance. Unsuccessful performance on PT challenges can be an indicator of procedural issues. However, the stability of tCO2 in PT material compared to physiologic specimens is unknown and no guidance is provided to laboratories on how to handle PT samples for tCO2 measurement. This study aims to compare tCO2 stability in PT material with that of plasma samples when exposed to ambient air at room temperature. Methods Using enzymatic endpoint measurement on Vitros 4600 Chemistry System, tCO2 was measured in PT material (n = 5) and patient samples (n = 6) at baseline and after exposure to air for 15, 30, 60, 90, and 120 minutes. 500μL of each sample was aliquoted into EZ-nest tube adapters and baseline measurements were immediately analyzed. Average percent difference from baseline was calculated and >-10% bias was considered acceptable. Results The average percent difference from baseline in PT samples exceeded -10% as early as 30 minutes; whereas -3% bias was observed in patient samples at 60 minutes. Results are summarized in the table below. Conclusions The assessment of tCO2 stability ensures the reliability of laboratory measurements. Our results indicate tCO2 in PT material is not stable when exposed to air beyond 15 minutes, however tCO2 in most patient samples remained stable beyond 120 minutes. Understanding the stability limits of tCO2 in PT material allows us to devise workflows that prevent sample degradation during PT events. By establishing best practices for maintaining tCO2 integrity in PT material, laboratories can enhance the accuracy of proficiency testing results.

Regarding the application of the terms «peace agreement», «аgreement on conciliation», «conciliation statement» in national procedural legislation

This article is devoted to the study of the application of the terms «peace agreement», « аgreement on conciliation «, «conciliation statement» in the procedural legislation of Ukraine. This study was conducted from the point of view of the content of these terms. At the same time, the etymological meaning of each term, its origin and meaning was studied. In addition, the study of the topic was carried out taking into account the provisions of the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights. Thus, in the ECtHR, it is also possible to apply the conciliation procedure through the conclusion of a relevant agreement by the parties to the case. The procedure itself and the document submitted to the court is called «friendly settlement». The use of the same term for the same legal institutions and phenomena is of great importance for legal understanding and law enforcement. In addition, when defining a term, not only the correspondence of the term itself to its meaning is important, but also the emotional coloring. That is why, in the course of the study, it was concluded that the term used in the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine and the Economic Procedure Code of Ukraine is inappropriate. This is due to the fact that the subject matter of the case in court can only be part of a larger conflict that exists between the parties and will not be exhausted after the court approves the terms of the settlement agreement. And the use of the term «аgreement on conciliation» is considered more appropriate. The prefix «pri-» in the word means approximation, joining, incomplete action or sign. That is, the term «аgreement on conciliation» from the point of view of emotional coloring and meaningful content most corresponds to the tasks of the procedure under study. The application for conciliation, the submission of which is provided for by the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine, also does not correspond to the content of the procedure of conciliation in court through the conclusion of an agreement by the parties to the case. A statement is a type of procedural document in which a party to the proceedings makes a claim or request. In turn, the agreements reached by the parties regarding the subject of the dispute and other procedural issues are recorded in the form of the agreement.

Exploring procedural justice in stakeholder identification using a systematic mapping approach

In the face of complex societal challenges, stakeholder participation/engagement and knowledge co-production have become increasingly important to the sustainability sciences. Why and how these stakeholders are identified frequently remains unclear, which raises concerns regarding rigor and procedural justice of research processes. Against this background, this paper seeks to contribute to a better understanding of how and why procedural justice issues materialize in stakeholder identification and assess the extent to which they can be addressed. We build on proposals for stakeholder identification in the academic literature that integrate three common approaches: analytical, sampling, and participant-based approaches. Further zooming into these approaches and related methods through a procedural justice lens, we show how the inclusion of stakeholders, the influence of stakeholders on the identification process, and the transparency of the overall identification process matter. We draw upon our own case study experiences to share the lessons learned, including the benefits of systematic mapping approaches for stakeholder identification. We conclude that stakeholder mapping facilitates accurate documenting of identification procedures and supports iterative refinement and adjustments of the stakeholders identified, whilst also creating reflexive potential to address intuitive and past experience-based practices, ultimately opening promising avenues to advance procedural justice in stakeholder identification.

Disaster preparedness in Australian hospitals: A cross-sectional survey

ObjectiveThis study examined the extent of disaster preparedness in Australian hospitals, seeking to identify opportunities for improvement. Insufficient preparation can lead to mortality/morbidity in post-disaster scenarios. Early identification of resolvable shortcomings in preparing for events is an important goal. Materials and methodsA purpose-designed anonymous survey was distributed to all Local-Hospital-Networks, organizations responsible for managing public hospitals and their disaster preparedness, across Australia's six states and two territories. Participant recruitment targeted disaster-managers, emergency-preparedness-managers, and business-continuity-managers. ResultsSurvey responses were received from 53/130 (40.8 %) of Australia's Local-Hospital-Networks with representation from six states and one territory. Most risk reduction measures were widely adopted. However, for 17/39 (43.6 %) measures, one-fifth of the respondents had either never heard of the measure or were not implementing it. Underutilized measures related to post-disaster-triage, emergency-evacuation, water-backup, secondary-electricity-feed, point-of-care-testing, alternative-decontamination-sites, and waste-management-systems. Local-Hospital-Networks' region-type, catchment-population and number-of-healthcare-facilities were associated with adoption of underutilized measures. ConclusionAlthough 22/39 (56.4 %) of carefully chosen measures were widely implemented, the state of Australia's disaster preparedness is variable. There remains room for improvement, particularly against an “all-hazards” standard. Limited implementation of disaster-triage, evacuation-measures, and procedural issues, suggests that Australian Local-Hospital-Networks, particularly those managing fewer facilities are not sufficiently prepared for catastrophes.

Amend the Mental Health Care Act 2017: A Survey of Indian Psychiatrists (Paper 1)

Aim: This paper highlights the difficulties and lacunae in the Mental Health Care Act 2017 that hinder its implementation and use for the care and treatment of persons with mental illness in India. Methods: An online nationwide survey, involving structured questions as well as open-ended questions, to elicit the level of implementation, experience in complying with the provisions of the Act, and level of satisfaction, of practicing psychiatrists was carried out. Responses were analyzed using appropriate statistics. Results: 600 respondents answered the online questionnaire. A majority of psychiatrists were senior practitioners with over 10 years of experience. 92.5% respondents were dissatisfied with the MHCA, wherein 73.3% wanted it amended, and 19.2% asked for repeal. Procedural issues were deterrent for 66.5% from taking medically necessary or helpful decisions for patients. Non-implementation of the Act was a major finding. Major dissatisfaction was expressed regarding judicial over reach in admission and discharge procedures, inclusion of general hospital psychiatry units in the definition of mental health establishment, non-applicability of provisions like advance directive and nominated representative in Indian setting, and that all treatment should be covered under insurance. Conclusion: The Act in its present form defies the spirit of its own objectives and is unimplementable. It needs major revisions.

Some features of performing executive proceedings during the period of the legal regime of martial state

The full-scale war in Ukraine was the cause of many social and political changes. As the research showed, the system of executive proceedings was not an exception. Since appropriate reactions to the realities of war were necessary, with the beginning of the war, the work of the state executive service (hereinafter referred to as the State Executive Service) and private contractors was effectively blocked. The reason for this was the stoppage of the automated system of executive proceedings, which made it impossible to actually carry out executive actions. Thus, it was established that changes in the mechanisms of enforcement of executive documents occurred even earlier, since the Russian Federation began to occupy our lands back in 2014, but with the beginning of a full-scale invasion, the legislation began to change and improve. Such changes also affected the ban on opening enforcement proceedings in potentially dangerous and occupied territories, which obviously violated the rights of debt collectors, and as it was established during the research, in some places such legal prohibitions became a reason for public or private enforcement officers to abuse their powers, refusing to open enforcement proceedings and returning the executive document to the debt collector without execution. In this context, the practice of the Supreme Court has become useful, which in its conclusions confirmed that regardless of the registration of the location of the debtor, the body of the state executive service must open proceedings and take measures to search for the debtor’s property throughout the territory of Ukraine, or apply restrictive measures that will force the debtor to fulfill his obligations, provided that such a debtor has entered the legal field of Ukraine. Also, from the conducted research, it can be seen that the legislative changes affected certain procedural issues and the work of private executors, however, the issue of alimony collection remained a priority and was not actually affected by the legislative changes. Even for military personnel, the duty to support their children remains a priority.

Distance-based Clustering of Functional Data with Derivative Principal Component Analysis

Functional data analysis (FDA) is an important modern paradigm for handling infinite-dimensional data. An important task in FDA is clustering, which identifies subgroups based on the shapes of measured curves. Considering that derivatives can provide additional useful information about the shapes of functionals, we propose a novel L 2 distance between two random functions by incorporating the functions and their derivative information to determine the dissimilarity of curves under a unified scheme for dense observations. The Karhunen–Loève expansion is used to approximate the curves and their derivatives. Cluster membership prediction for each curve intends to minimize the new distances between the observed and predicted curves through subspace projection among all possible clusters. We provide consistent estimators for the curves, curve derivatives, and the proposed distance. Identifiability issues of the clustering procedure are also discussed. The utility of the proposed method is illustrated via simulation studies and applications to two real datasets. The proposed method can considerably improve cluster performance compared with existing functional clustering methods. Supplementary materials for the article are available online.

Legal and administrative elements of the construction of tax exemptions and allowances in the context of granting public support

Among the forms of public assistance of a passive nature are tax concessions and exemptions. A given form of aid can be of liquidity support, rescue and restructuring and pro-development nature for the enterprise. This form of assistance is reflected in the reduction of revenues to the state and local government budgets. Tax credits, used as investment incentives for entrepreneurs, can affect the growth of production, and in the case of new investments, the creation of new jobs or the retention of existing ones. The article presents the provisions of the tax law on real estate tax in correlation with the law on state aid, in the context of an assessment of - to what extent on the grounds of real estate tax it is possible to operate reliefs and exemptions that constitute state aid for entrepreneurs. The legal problems of providing state aid and the issues of tax procedures in the field of tax reliefs and exemptions and the calculation of the net value of state aid are presented.

Practitioner perspectives on dealing with victimhood and offending in UK ‘County Lines’ drug supply investigations

This paper examines the investigative challenges associated with the ‘County Lines’ drug supply phenomenon from the perspective of police practitioners. Two areas are identified and explored: the presence and role of autonomy, coercion, and exploitation, and the legal and procedural issues. The police response appears confounded by non-specific legislation, unintended implications of the statutory defence, problems with the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), safeguarding deficiencies, incomplete statutory guardianship, and limited recognition of neurodevelopment and neurodivergence among those involved. The research is relevant to law and public policy and will be of interest to investigators and criminal justice system professionals.

Lifestyle monitoring of declarants in a state of martial law

Lifestyle monitoring of declarants is one of the financial control mechanisms introduced in 2014 with the entry into force of the Law of Ukraine “On Prevention of Corruption”. The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) was designated as an entity responsible for the lifestyle monitoring of declarants. By the beginning of the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, the NACP had completed only a few dozen monitorings. However, after the suspension of mandatory e-declaring as well as full audits of e-declarations due to the introduction of martial law, the NACP intensified its activities on lifestyle monitoring. Until the fall of 2023, the NACP had conducted monitoring based on the direct provisions of Articles 514, 522 of the Law of Ukraine “On Prevention of Corruption” and internal methodological recommendations. In October 2023, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine introduced several important amendments to the law on lifestyle monitoring. Following this, the NACP approved a separate Procedure for lifestyle monitoring of declarants which was registered with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. The new Procedure defines key terms, establishes a list of information sources for monitoring, determines the manner of recording monitoring results and regulates a number of other procedural issues. Although the adoption of the Procedure is a positive development, the document has certain legal flaws. These include the absence of deadlines for the monitoring procedure, failure to establish auto-distribution of monitorings among NACP employees, and a controversial form of envisaging the final results of the monitoring. The law enforcement practice in lifestyle monitoring is actively developing. Only in 2023 the NACP launched 621 and completed 552 lifestyle monitorings. However, to guarantee full compliance with the principles of legality, legal certainty, and respect for private and family life, the NACP should eliminate the above flaws of the Procedure and adopt special lifestyle monitoring procedures for judges and judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in accordance with the requirements of the law.

Письма судей и органов судейского сообщества как объект проверки в порядке гражданского и административного судопроизводства

The procedures for citizens to challenge the decisions, action (inaction) of state bodies and officials are widespread in Russian procedural law. Notwithstanding the clear, at first glance, regulation of objects of verification and list of persons, whose decisions, action (inaction) can be appealed in court, in practice there're still controversial cases when citizens and organizations try to protest the letters from judges containing answers on procedural and non-procedural issues arising during the resolution of the case on the merits. Particularly it's about determining the legal nature of letters from judges on the return of statements of claim, on the termination of correspondence with the party; letters sent by court staff (consultants, etc.); letters from bodies of the judicial community. In order to qualify the letters from judges that are not issued as a court ruling the author offers to determine signs of judicial rulings in them. As for letters sent by court staff and bodies of the judicial community the author, based the object and subject criteria, concludes that it is unacceptable to appeal such documents in civil or administrative proceedings.

Surgical Concepts and Long-term Outcomes of Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation in Patients with Severe Tourette Syndrome: A Single-center Experience.

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a developmental neuropsychiatric disorder that is characterized by tic movements. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) may be a treatment option for severe cases refractory to medical and behavioral therapies. In this study, we reviewed the surgical techniques used for DBS in patients with severe TS and its clinical outcomes and sought to determine the optimal surgical procedure and current issues based on our experience and the literature. A total of 14 patients, consisting of 13 men and 1 woman, who underwent centromedian thalamic DBS and were followed up for a mean duration of 2.3 ± 1.0 years, participated in this study. The mean Yale Global Tic Severity Scale severity score significantly improved from 41.4 ± 7.0 at baseline to 19.8 ± 11.4 at 6 months (P = 0.01) and 12.7 ± 6.2 at the last follow-up (P < 0.01). Moreover, the mean Yale Global Tic Severity Scale impairment score significantly improved from 47.1 ± 4.7 at baseline to 23.1 ± 11.1 at 6 months (P < 0.01) and 7.6 ± 2.9 at the last follow-up (P < 0.01). However, there were problems with continuous postoperative monitoring (three cases were lost to follow-up) and surgery-related adverse events, including one case each of lead misplacement and a delayed intracerebral hemorrhage due to severe self-injurious tics. This study aimed to highlight not only the clinical efficacy of DBS for TS but also its challenges. Clinicians should understand the three-dimensional brain anatomy so that they can perform precise surgical procedures, avoid adverse events, and achieve favorable outcomes of DBS for TS.

DISSENTING OPINION: A DIFFICULT PATH TO FINDING THE TRUTH (BASED ON THE EXAMPLE OF UKRAINIAN JUDGES' INTERPRETATION OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURAL LAW)

The article is devoted to the issue of the dissenting opinion of a judge, which is relevant to modern law enforcement practice and legal theory and which may be expressed when a judge who participated in a collegial consideration of a case does not agree with the position of the majority of the panel of judges. The authors analyse the existing approaches to the institution of dissenting opinions in different legal systems, the factors that negatively affect the existence of dissenting opinions in the justice system, provide examples of dissenting opinions of Ukrainian judges expressed in different jurisdictions, their significance for law enforcement practice and the public outcry they caused. It addresses the procedural issues that may potentially arise during the judicial proceedings and the formation of a dissenting opinion of a judge. The authors conclude that the institution of dissenting opinion is of undoubted value for justice and the authority of the court in the State and emphasise that the specifics of the text of a judge's dissenting opinion against the background of lapidary normative regulation by the rules of procedural law may indicate the genre independence of the content of a dissenting opinion in judicial discourse as compared to a court decision. The authors propose the concept of dissenting opinion, by which they mean an official legal position of a judge which is formed during collegial consideration of a case as a result of an internal conviction which does not coincide (partially does not coincide) with the position of the majority of judges in terms of reasoning or final conclusion, and which is formalised in a procedural document which is an act of competent (professional) and doctrinal judicial casual interpretation. In addition, the authors present synthesised features which characterise a judge's legal opinion as a dissenting opinion, including the statement that it is undoubtedly a phenomenon of a democratic society; it has the features of an institution of law, albeit with lapidary normative regulation; it is issued by a judge within his/her competence as a result of judicial discretion and inner conviction; has a prognostic and forward-looking character, since it sometimes serves as a means of overcoming outdated views that impede progressive legal development, evolution of sustainable approaches, and as a basis for the formation of a new legal position, which in the future may be transformed into a majority position and become a sustainable practice; besides, it is derivative, optional, as it is not binding, unlike a court decision, and is not an act of justice, as it is not issued in the name of the state and is not a mandatory part of a court decision.

Procedure for licensing medical activities at the present stage: problems and ways to overcome them

BACKGROUND: One of the tools for ensuring the quality of medical care and medical services is licensing procedures for admission to medical activities, which include licensing. Licensing is indicated as a mandatory condition for carrying out medical activities in the list of types of activities for which licenses are required (clause 46 of Article 12 of the Federal Law “On Licensing of Certain Types of Activities”). Since life and health are the most important universal human values and are legally enshrined at the level of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the study of the healthcare sector, including from the point of view of legal support for procedures for admitting individuals and legal entities to medical activities, is of exceptional scientific and practical interest. It should be noted that the institution of licensing of medical activities is one of the legal institutions that is constantly undergoing legislative changes, which allows us to speak about the relevance and relevance of this issue. Issues of licensing medical activities quite often come to the attention of researchers, however, due to the dynamic changes in the current legislation on the issue under study and the presence of quite extensive judicial practice, they require additional research in order to resolve problematic issues that arise in practice. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY: based on an analysis of the regulatory framework for licensing medical activities, to identify problematic procedural issues and determine ways to improve the current legislation regulating the provision of medical care and medical services. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using the method of expert assessments, an analysis was carried out of the regulatory framework of the Russian Federation regulating legal relations during the procedure for licensing medical activities by organizations of the public and private healthcare system. RESULTS: Licensing as an institution of law is complex in terms of the legal relations it generates, combining at its core the legal norms of two broad branches of law — administrative and civil. At the same time, licensing is a mandatory criterion for the functioning of a medical organization and includes a number of requirements for such organizations. Despite the extensive regulatory framework on the issue under study, licensing requirements contain a number of problematic aspects that create obstacles for licensees and license applicants and require legislative approval. In this regard, the authors have proposed ways to resolve existing contradictions by making specific proposals to change the current legislation. The proposed optimization of the licensing procedure for all participants in this process, as well as minimizing the risks arising from these legal relations, according to the authors, fully meets the objectives of ensuring the rights of citizens to high-quality and safe medical care.

Review of the Adverse Effects Associated with Dermal Filler Treatments: Part I Nodules, Granuloma, and Migration.

The increase in the use of filler treatments within minimally invasive cosmetic surgery has correspondingly escalated the variety and frequency of associated side effects. Initially, unregulated procedures led to primary side effects such as infections, foreign body reactions, and granuloma formation. However, severe vascular complications like skin and tissue necrosis and blindness have emerged as recognized risks. Side effects from filler treatments can range from mild to life-threatening, including edema, pain, tenderness, numbness, bleeding, bruising, hematoma, redness, erythema, pigmentation, allergic reactions, itching, pruritus, the Tyndall effect, asymmetry, irregularity, migration, skin and soft tissue infections, nodules, granulomas, and vascular compromise. These side effects are categorized into early and delayed types. Many complications, particularly those related to vascular abnormalities, are frequently linked to procedural issues, emphasizing the importance of understanding filler properties, injection techniques, and facial anatomy. Preventing side effects is ideal, but early detection and treatment are crucial. Recognizing potential side effects based on their timing and understanding appropriate preemptive treatment methods is essential. This discussion addresses non-vascular side effects, highlighting their onset, symptoms, and management strategies. The comprehensive understanding and careful management of these side effects are vital for minimizing complications and ensuring patient safety in filler treatments.

Strengthening the Family Support Division (BSK) on Alimony for Muslim Women

The objective of the study is to identify the need to strengthen the Family Support Division (BSK) on alimony among Muslim women in Malaysia. In this qualitative analysis study, four of the highest-ranking members of the Department of Syariah Judiciary Malaysia (JKSM) and one expert from academic areas were interviewed in depth using a set of carefully selected questions that correlated with the objective of the research. The recorded interview material was then verbatim transcribed and coded with Nvivo software version 10. Several factors that prove the need for strengthening the Family Support Division (BSK), are the husband's failure to pay alimony, a lack of data exchange with other organizations in Malaysia, the increasing number of family law cases, and procedural issues in the Syariah Court. This article recommends that a more comprehensive family finance improvement module, involving the Malaysian Syariah Judicial Department (JKSM), Family Support Division (BSK), Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM), and National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN), be established and implemented as early as the age of marriage to ensure the family institution's sustainability.

Reversing the gaze: understanding how community members are negatively affected by impact assessment

ABSTRACT This study addresses the persistent tensions in Impact Assessment (IA), which aim to balance public engagement with technical analysis. In this context, the IA process itself poses a significant risk to the individuals and communities involved in the impact assessment. The consequences of these risks, and whether they materialize, remain uncertain and depend on the specific context of each IA process. Drawing on the sociology of risk and broader IA literature, we present a case study of the Grassy Mountain Coal Project in southern Alberta, Canada. Instead of evaluating project-specific impacts within the IA process, we examine the impacts of the IA process on community members. By reversing our gaze, we aim to understand how IA processes impact communities and how these impacts manifest. Led by the results of the study, the impacts of the IA on community members are examined under three specific impact locations: (1) risk perceptions and anticipatory impacts, (2) procedural issues, and (3) community and regional conflicts. Our conclusions underscore the need to recognize these types of impact on communities and explore ways to minimize the costs of IA to communities.

P-060 When is it the sperm’s fault? The incidence of sperm-related poor fertilization after ICSI in 13,859 matched oocyte donation cycles

Abstract Study question What is the true incidence and impact of male factor-related poor fertilization in ICSI cycles when analyzed using matched pairs of high quality donor oocytes? Summary answer In ICSI cycles with donor oocytes, male factor-related poor fertilization occurs in 3.3% of cases and contributes to 86.7% of all poor (&amp;lt;30%) fertilization outcomes. What is known already Opting for oocyte donation is a complex decision for couples, involving significant financial and long-term implications. This decision is typically prompted by presumed female infertility as male fertility diagnostics remain limited. Although ICSI is a highly effective treatment, cases of poor or complete fertilization failure can still occur, even when sperm parameters appear normal. This suggests the presence of unidentified male-related factors. However, the precise incidence of such factors remains poorly understood. This study aims to address this gap, offering a unique perspective, by employing a matched oocyte donation model to investigate the influence of sperm-related factors on fertilization outcomes. Study design, size, duration This retrospective cohort study analyzed 14,928 oocyte donation ICSI cycles, derived from 7,519 ovarian stimulations (OS) of 2,963 unique oocyte donors. The data were from a single center from January 2015 to December 2022. Sibling oocytes from the same OS were utilized for at least two different recipients (n = 13,859), facilitating comparisons under varying paternal conditions. Participants/materials, setting, methods Cases from the same oocyte lot with poor (&amp;lt;30%) and good (&amp;gt;65%) fertilization rates were matched to isolate sperm-related factors influencing fertilization success. Paired t-tests were used to compare outcomes. Ordinary least squares regression was used to isolate variables associated with poor fertilization, such as oocyte status (fresh versus vitrified), sperm origin (partner versus donor) and the presence of severe male factor (defined as a concentration of &amp;lt; 1 million/mL and/or &amp;lt;1% progressive motility). Main results and the role of chance The mean fertilization rate was 73.0% across all cycles analyzed. The incidence of poor fertilization (≤30%) was found to be 3.8% across the entire cohort (532 out of 13,859 cycles). Of these, 86.7% (461/532) cases using the same oocyte lot could be matched to cases with high fertilization rates (&amp;gt;65%) in other recipient cycles (n = 1,441), indicating that poor fertilization was male-related. We observed comparable numbers of inseminated oocytes between matched cases with high and low fertilization (7.23 ± 1.32 and 7.42 ± 1.42, respectively, p = 0.011), while the mean number of fertilized oocytes (1.44 ± 0.77 versus 6.12 ± 1.36, p = &amp;lt;0.001) and mean fertilization rates (20% versus 83%, p &amp;lt; 0.001) differed significantly. Notably, oocyte vitrification and the presence of a severe male factor negatively affected fertilization outcomes (coeff. -0.0898, p &amp;lt; 0.001 and coeff. -0.1500, p &amp;lt; 0.001, respectively). Nevertheless, the majority of poor fertilization cases (92.7%) occurred in the absence of these factors, underscoring the limitations of conventional semen diagnosis tests as predictors of poor fertilization. Across the entire cohort male factor alone accounted for 3.3% (461/13,859) of cycles with &amp;lt;30% fertilization rates. Furthermore, sperm-related factors were the primary cause of poor fertilization outcomes in oocyte donation cycles, accounting for 86.7% of cases. Limitations, reasons for caution Certain variables were not analyzed due to the retrospective nature and extended timeframe of the study. The matched oocyte model may overlook certain non-male factor-related instances of poor fertilization, such as procedural or technical issues. Wider implications of the findings This extensive analysis emphasizes the clinical relevance of male factor in fertilization outcomes, highlighting the need for improved semen diagnosis. It also indicates the importance of considering male-related factors in treatment decisions and shifting the focus from female-centric to more balanced fertility evaluations. Trial registration number Not applicable

Procedural (in)justice in regulating shale gas as transitional fuel in India

India has earmarked 56 shale gas fracking projects as part of its coal-to-gas transition plan. However, fracking poses peculiar risks to the environment and public health. This paper examines whether India’s fracking-based energy transition pathway ensures procedural justice for its citizens by evaluating its regulatory framework on three key aspects of procedural justice: information, inclusion and influence. In doing so, this paper posits that procedural rights are considered part of constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights in India. To address the procedural justice issues, this paper argues that the Indian government should conduct scientific inquiries into the environmental impact of the proposed fracking projects. Additionally, the paper suggests establishing communication channels to inform local communities about fracking-related risks through decentralised regulatory mechanisms, creating regulatory structures to involve various stakeholders in decision-making, and analysing how fracking will affect the socio-economic conditions of local communities.